THE SPORTS SCENE OF EASTERN VISAYAS AFTER YOLANDA
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Dec 2013
Super typhoon Yolanda brought havoc to the Visayas region especially Leyte and Samar leaving more than 6,000 dead and several others missing. As thousands of families were homeless, sports actives in the region were also becoming orphans as facilities were intensely affected.
The P200 million Tacloban City Convention Center also known as Tacloban Coliseum was severely damaged by the typhoon as it was situated by the seaside. Storm surge rushed through the openings of the modern air-conditioned basketball court where thousands of evacuees sought refuge. Until now it still housed many evacuees whose houses were painfully destroyed by the hurricane.
The sports facility once hosted several Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) games. It was also the center for culture and arts of this regional capital and the center for large gatherings in Eastern Visayas.
Same is through with Ormoc Superdome, which hosted several PBA games and national and regional tournaments and gatherings. It was destroyed by Yolanda and needed a huge amount for rehabilitation.
The Leyte Sports Center, the modern track and field oval, swimming pool and other sports facility, was also partly damaged and is now used as the center for evacuation and relief. The athletics center has been the venue of the 2009 Palarong Pamnasa hosted by the Department of Education Eastern Visayas region and the Province of Leyte. It was also the venue of several Eastern Visayas Regional Athletic Association meet.
The Leyte Sports Academy also housed and trained their athletes in the said site. They specialized in athletics, swimming, and boxing. It was financed by the Leyte Provincial government assisted by Smart and was supervised by Dr. Lucrecio Calo, former Philippine Sports Commission Executive Director. The trainees are now temporarily housed at the PSC grounds in Pasig.
Leyte was supposed to host the 2013 Visayas leg of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) championships, But Yolanda prevented them from doing so. We intended to help them by transferring the hosting to Maasin City subject to the approval of the ABAP national governing board.
Maasin City conducted the Christmas Open/Invitational Boxing Tournament last week and invited some Tacloban boxing officials and fighters. Those who attended were national referees Nelson Factoranan and Romnick Villegas, and boxers Jowel Adap, Jhundell Villegas, and Wildon Ignacio who was the only winner. We intended to support them through the cash incentives we gave them.
When we were in Tanauan, Leyte last week, giving food to some 1,000 evacuees at Tanauan Central Central School, I met Dorcas Mejia, the President and Founder of the Region 8 Archery Association and the Leyte Archery Association. She thanked me in behalf of the DepEd family of Tanauan for our Christmas giveaways.
Ms. Mejia was in Maasin when we hosted the EVRAA in 2012 and was the archery tournament manager. We talked a lot about sports and the possibility of Maasin hosting the national archery open which I consented subject to the approval of the National Archery Association of the Philippines of which she was an official.
Eastern Visayas athletic meet will no longer be formally held in 2014 as the region was intensely wrecked by the super typhoon. Baybay City was supposed to host the regional meet, but initial agreements had it that they will just send the champion divisions of each event for the Palarong Pambansa in Laguna next year.
The Idol Boxing Series Part II featuring Albert Pagara versus an Indonesian boxer was also postponed indefinitely as television exposure in the Visayas is not that lucrative due to the blackouts to the detriment of the sponsors. It was moved to either May or August next year.
The topmost sports celebrity of the country and one of the greatest boxers of the world, Congressman Manny Pacquiao visited the ravaged Provinces of Leyte and Samar including cities of Tacloban and Ormoc and gave them goods from his own resources.
Pacquiao attended the flag ceremony of Tacloban City Hall and comforted the people. He encouraged them not to lose hope and always pray to the Almighty for recovery. He cited his own example of being knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez but was able to rise again and defeated Brandon Rios.
But the most dramatic sports accomplishment amidst the destruction of the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall in the world's history happened recently. The Philippines' karatedo fighter Ramon Antonio Franco, who hails from Tacloban, won the gold medal for the country during the 27th Southeast Asian Games in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. He defeated Muhammad Fidaly of Brunei in the finals of the men?s individual kumite 55-kg category.
He finally won a gold medal in the SEA Games after winning the bronze in 2009 and the silver in 2011. He trained for two months in
Iran when Yolanda struck his place. He lost contact with his family but later learned that they survived but heir house was badly damaged.
Franco who won over opponents from Indonesia and Vietnam in the preliminaries and the semifinals and Fidaly of Brunei in the finals, dedicated his gold medal performance to the victims of the super typhoon in Leyte and Samar.
Photo: Tacloban Coliseum after Yolanda by storify.com.
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